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All 16.0 - Naiza Dawan
When the ship reached the point where it was headed, on Sivan 16th, the current command crew, Bastion and Caitlyn, found themselves faced with a cliff wall. Caitlyn drew the ship to a halt, and the pair managed to spot a section of the cliff that appeared to have a door in it, closed with a spell similar to the one they saw before. Turning to the navigation computer, the two women managed to determine how to activate the door from the panel. Docking on the internal rails with a pointed lack of grace, they activated the door again, and it went through the process of sealing and draining the lock, as before. People started to congregate, wondering what actions they would take. As the internal doors opened and Caitlyn took the ship in, they found that it was a large, ostensibly underground room. From what they could see, it was a workroom, not unlike the one they had found the Gunakadeit in, though this one seemed both larger and well-lit. Docking the boat, the group prepared to leave, opting to send a few people out first to gauge the safety of the unknown area. Victor, Lucca and Cress opted to be the ones to step out first, however, when they opened the door, they found not only that they were two stories up with no scaffolding or stairs, but also that the boat had been surrounded by a large group of plain-clothed orcs, wielding various weapons and digging implements and looking both confused and afraid. A shouted question from one of the gathered quickly revealed that they didn’t speak the same language. Deciding that the best course of action would be to talk with them, the group pulled back in, had Pierce cast Tongues on Caitlyn and Victor, and, along with Lucca wearing his helm of understanding, the three stepped back to the entryway, looking out over their confused audience. Caitlyn addressed them, trying to use as basic, non-offensive language as she could, explaining that they had come on an urgent mission and needed supplies and to refuel. The orcs looked wary; a particular man, who appeared from his demeanor to be the leader, asked why they came to a mine for that, and where they had come from. The other men, miners apparently, seemed surprised when they replied that they were from Mirilarin; one shouted out that he didn’t know people even lived there. Caitlyn answered a few more questions, explaining that they had indeed come from the ocean, their ship had brought them there, and that no, it wasn’t a normal thing, they had found it in a ruin, not unlike they one they seemed to be in currently. Eventually, the foreman put up his hands and said that this wasn’t in his job description, someone should go get the bean-heads, and for everyone else to get back to work. With that, he and some of his men turned and left, exiting through a far door. Some of the other miners tried to appear busy, though it was obvious that their jobs weren’t in this room, while the rest unashamedly continued to stare at the strange craft that had appeared unexpectedly. Some of the group began to climb out of the boat, using a rope ladder that someone kindly tossed up to them. Caitlyn and Ryuji waited near the door for whomever the “bean-heads” were, while some of the others, Victor, Cohen, Bastion, Lucca and Cress, began to wander about the room, looking at the outside of their ship as well as at the various items and areas that appeared to have been cordoned and categorized off by archaeologists. Carrot too jumped on the opportunities presented by the dry-dock, and began to survey the hull damage that had been wrought by the kraken. The others opted, for the moment, to remain on the ship. Within a few minutes, a hobgoblin man came rushing in, followed after by four others: two hobgoblins, a human, and what appeared to be a man-sized, well-built kobold: a race none of the Mirilarins had seen before. They weren’t dressed as miners, and certainly didn’t look like they did much digging. The man in front stopped in awe of the boat, staring at it with a level of excitement that left him unable to do anything other than make small squeaking noises. Eventually Caitlyn managed to gather his attention, at which point he began asking questions about where it had come from, where they had found it, and what it could do. When finally calmed enough to change the topic slightly, he introduced himself as Emmanuil Yianni, a scholar and archaeologist of his Majesty. He and his team of students had been sent to this mine, Naiza Dawan, when they had uncovered extensive Valparaisan ruins while digging for nickel. Heartened to be in the company of someone whose job and motives were familiar, Caitlyn began to ask him questions in turn, and they two exchanged information. The country they had landed in was called Mesecoy, and was ruled by his Majesty the king. They asked little more about the greater area, as their current location was of more pressing concern: Yianni told them that this was but one room in a large ruined complex, deep underground. The purpose of the complex wasn’t known yet, because the ruins, besides being well-preserved, were also rife with magic. The sticking point was a powerful, extensive series of teleporting enchantments that seemed to mix up the rooms, making it very difficult to proceed systematically; it had been theorized that the enchantments were originally to speed up travel within the facility, but had degraded over time, making them more of a giant inconvenience. The room they were in, the docking and maintenance area, was one of the few rooms they had managed to stabilize and therefore enter and exit with regularity. There was another problem as well: being so close to the Underdark, a phenomenon that appeared to exist in this country as well at their own, many of the rooms had become inhabited by strange, terrible and vicious creatures, making it very dangerous to explore. Regardless, there were untold treasures lost in this ruin, both of historic and economical value. The scholars were waiting for trained explorers and combatants to arrive, in order to better plumb the depths, as his Majesty had promised great rewards to whomever could properly explore the ruins, killing the monsters and recovering the relics within; though they had more pressing concerns themselves, the Mirilarins thought immediately of the petrified mercenary in their hold. Looking about at the various items and terminals about the room, Yianni explained that many of them must have to do with their ship: the missing piece in their archaeological investigation. Many things were magical, but were broken or missing pieces; others seemed to need connectors or places to fit. Yianni’s team had managed to find a few promising pieces in their short forays into the ruins, but hadn’t any idea what they might have been used for. Presented now with the ship, they knew what the room was designed for, and they could see if any of the relics fit or connected anywhere to the ship, allowing them to learn their purpose as well as possibly enhancing the boat’s capabilities. With some work, the group managed to determine how to hook the boat to a particular machine that seemed to be a power generator, effectively refueling the ship. Carrot, when shown a series of large, flat panels with a variety of wires and runes throughout their surface, knew exactly where they’d fit: in the navigation system terminal. By installing the panels, the system regained its ability to display a world map, complete with the ability to set courses. Nothing else seemed functional at the moment, but hopefully with some more exploring, they could find even more upgrades for the Gunakadiet. When asked, Yianni explained that there was a mining town about a two hours’ walk away that supplied the miners with necessities; however, being a small, remote town, it was unlikely to have anything more than basic goods and services. Caitlyn explained that they were trying to find a shrine of some sort; with Lucca voicing Harlequin’s limited knowledge of the location, that it was a holy spot dedicated to the oldest of gods, probably very hard to get to, they asked if Yianni knew anything about where it might be. While he had no particular idea, one of the students piped up that he had taken some religious studies courses, and that what they mentioned sounded like the myth of the World Tree. Jumping on the student for more information, they learned that many cultures and religions shared a story of an island in the ocean, protected by storms or creatures or deadly shoals, where grew a huge tree, or stood a huge shrine shaped like a tree, and it was the place where the gods convened with the land, though the gods obviously differed by who was telling the tale. Despite the many minor differences, the island was always said to be in a particular spot in the ocean where sailing was known to be terrible, so its location was both well-known and unverified. Marking this spot into their now-fully-functional map system, they decided that this was as good of a lead as any, and that that was where they would go when the ship was done being repaired and they had had a bit of a rest from travelling. With that established, everyone began to go about their own separate business. The Gunakadiet stayed docked in Naiza Dawan for 6 days, having its damaged hull patched and its nose painted by two particular young men, much to the shame and regret of the assembled scholars. Most people opted to spend the time in town: excepting Lucca, Carrot, Dr. Cohen and, for the most part, Cress, everyone took on inn rooms rather than sleep in the ship, mine or the surrounding wilderness. Clothes, sundries and other day-to-day items were gladly purchased by those who didn’t happen to have extradimensional bags with them when they were unceremoniously thrown on their adventure, and everyone took time to enjoy the outdoors. Caitlyn threw herself into learning the local language, using childrens’ books, a dictionary and Yianni’s assistance to help her. She spent a lot of time with the academic, discussing Valparaiso, Yianni’s area of specialty, and their respective knowledge of the ancient past. The hobgoblin lamented that they would have to leave, taking their rare and priceless ship with them, and that he wouldn’t be able to investigate it further, or learn about any of the other ruin sites they were undoubtedly going to find with it. Considering this deeply, Caitlyn began to wonder about the feasibility of Lightning Transit. Approaching Pierce, who was both an arcane caster and good friends with the system’s inventor, she asked whether he knew enough about the portal spell to replicate it. He admitted to having had worked with it before, having one on one of his properties, and so between the pair of them, they managed to construct a large LT station in the docking room. Should they find another place to dock, they could construct another gate and, using the power of the four attunement crystals they had between them, they should be able to bring the boat between any docking bay they found, making it simple for them to refuel, repair and report findings to Yianni. This was excellent news for the academic, who agreed to help them in any way that he could, in exchange for citing Caitlyn and Pierce on his papers. On second day after docking, Bastion reported to the others when she happened to see them that Magdha had decided that she didn’t want to have anything to do with this mission and had left the area. Where she was going, no one knew, but few people were really surprised. Cohen quickly took over the now-empty captain’s room. Purchasing what meagre supplies he could from the small town, he began the process of translating alchemy formulas into a new book from the few scrolls he could buy and the handful of pertinent spells in Bastion’s spellbook. Cress and Lucca painted the nose of the ship, using paint begrudgingly made for them by the alchemist, while everyone else took advantage of the space and rest, trying not to think about the mission before them or the fate of their countries and loved ones left behind. When it was time to be moving on, Shinobi was reanimated. Having no clear idea of what had happened, having been hit behind with the spell and subsequently unconscious until then, he had the situation regarding the ruins, the monsters and his Majesty’s substantial reward explained to him. Deciding that it was better to have a king paying him royally rather than having to sit on a tiny boat for no reward, he agreed to stay there and deal with the archaeologists’ problem for them. With that settled, the remaining members reboarded and set back out, leaving Yianni to wait excitedly for news from them. Their destination set, they headed out. Days passed slowly underwater; the tension had lessened significantly, though everyone in the Komatsu family continued to avoid the doctor like he was plagued. Victor and Caitlyn continued to practice maneuvering the ship, slowly becoming more practiced at it; Pierce worked diligently at the navigation system, eventually beginning to work out the intricacies of its numerous features. Everyone took up their own means of passing the time, whether it was sparring, reading, practicing with the ship, cooking playing cards or being pestered by small children. On the tenth day after departing from Naiza Dawan, the ship began to approach the area marked on its map. Category:Advent of the All